US President Donald Trump has held a meeting with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Trump delivered a typical speech to the assembly on Tuesday, in which he was initially denied use of a teleprompter (and for which he promised “big trouble,” to laughter in the audience).
While criticizing mass migration, Trump also told the gathered delegations that the peace he “forged” during his first presidential term had been “shattered” by the “guns of war” and questioned the role of the UN in resolving recent conflicts and political crises.
After his speech, he met with Zelensky to discuss the Ukraine conflict.
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23 September 2025
When asked about the progress in resolving the Ukraine conflict, Trump claimed that “the biggest progress is that the Russian economy is terrible right now” and is “crashing.”
Although Russia's economy has shown some signs of slowing down in recent months, President Vladimir Putin said last week that the country “is still far from a recession,” citing the “historically low unemployment rates.” Most analysts and economists have acknowledged that the Russian economy has broadly weathered the sweeping Western sanctions.
The US president believes NATO nations should shoot down Russian military aircraft if they cross into their airspace, answering in the affirmative to a question to that effect.
When further pressed on whether Washington would aid other NATO members in such cases, the president replied that it would depend “on the circumstance.”
Hungary could forgo Russian oil imports, Trump has claimed during a joint briefing with Zelensky. The US president has said he had not yet talked to Prime Minister Viktor Orban about the issue. “I have a feeling if I did, he might stop, and I think I'll be doing that,” he has added.
When asked whether he still trusts Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump replied that he would give an answer “in about a month.”
It is “too early” to talk about guarantees for Ukraine, Trump has told journalists during a short joint press briefing ahead of his meeting with Zelensky.
Zelensky is heading to his sit-down with Trump.
Trump and Zelensky most recently met in Washington in mid-August, soon after the US president’s summit with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska. The leaders of the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Finland, as well as the heads of NATO and the European Commission were also present at the talks between the American president and Ukrainian leader.
Trump also put a big map on a display at the Oval Office showing the frontline situation in the Ukraine conflict. “I assume you've all seen the map,” Trump told Fox news after the meeting. “A big chunk of territory is taken and that territory has been taken,” he said, referring to the areas controlled by Russia.
Zelensky also admitted that territorial exchanges were on the talks agenda at the White House – something he had previously outright refused to discuss.
Trump spoke for almost an hour at the UN General Assembly, even though each speaker is usually given around 15 minutes. At 56 minutes, it was the longest speech at the UN among US presidents.
Renewable energy is “a joke” and is too expensive and insufficient to power an industrial economy, Trump claimed. According to the president, the “green energy agenda” has brought many nations in Europe to “the brink of destruction,” adding: “All green is all bankrupt.”
The US president called global warming and the idea of the carbon footprint a “hoax” and a “scam,” claiming that the green agenda was aimed at moving manufacturing and industrial activity away from developed nations.
The US will lead an international effort to enforce the 1975 Biological Weapons Convention, Trump announced, adding that it will involve “pioneering an AI verification system that everyone can trust.” He did not provide any details about the system.
Western governments are “destroying [their] countries” with mass migration, the US president has claimed. “Europe is in serious trouble,” he said, adding that such policies are unsustainable. “Immigration … and suicidal energy ideas will be the death of Western Europe.”
Trump has called uncontrolled migration the “number one political issue of our time,” adding that the UN had not just failed to help tackle the issue but was instrumental in creating it. “The UN is funding an assault on the Western countries,” the president claimed, adding that those countries “are being ruined.”
Trump has criticized Kiev’s European backers, claiming they are “funding the war against themselves” by purchasing oil from Russia “while fighting Russia.” He added that the US is ready to impose a “very strong round of powerful tariffs” against Russia if it is not “ready to make a deal” to end the Ukraine conflict – but will only do so if the EU is ready to follow suit.
Trump has accused Hamas of rejecting “reasonable offers to make peace,” without mentioning Israel’s military action in Gaza. He also criticized the nations seeking to “unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state,” saying they are doing this “as if to encourage continued conflict.”
Trump invited “any nation in this assembly” to join him in “forging a safer and more prosperous world” under US leadership. He argued that nations must “reject the failed approaches of the past” and “confront some of the greatest threats in history” in order to achieve a better future.
His list of threats includes the Iranian nuclear program, which he said must be contained. Trump also praised the US strike on the country’s nuclear facilities earlier this year amid the Israel-Iran conflict.
“What is the purpose of the United Nations?” Trump asked, arguing that while the organization has “tremendous potential,” it is “not even coming close to living up” to this, as it is all words and no action.
“All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that on the way up stopped right in the middle... and then a teleprompter that didn’t work,” the US president said.
Trump has questioned the UN role in resolving the recent conflicts by saying that it had done virtually nothing to particularly aid him in his peace efforts. “It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them. And, sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them,” he stated.
“In a period of seven months I’ve ended seven unendable wars,” Trump has claimed, referring to a border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, a conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a brief military escalation between India and Pakistan, as well as the war between Israel and Iran, among others.
The US president has credited himself with making NATO “stronger than ever before” by making its members increase the defense spending threshold from 2% to 5% of their GDP. He added that he had strengthened ties with the Middle East and struck a series of “historic trade deals,” including with the UK, the EU, Japan, and South Korea.
Trump has accused the administration of his predecessor, Joe Biden, of throwing the US into a “repeated set of disasters” through four years of “weakness, lawlessness, and radicalism.” He also claimed that his return to the White House has lifted the US out of “deep trouble” and made it “the hottest country in the world.” The president then praised the US economy, military, and the state of border security.
The world was “prosperous and at peace” during his first term four years ago, Trump has claimed, adding that the peace he had forged has been “shattered” by the “guns of war.” “The era of calm and stability gave way to one of the great crises of our time,” according to the US president.
Trump has started his speech by making remarks about a teleprompter that wasn't working. “I can only say that whoever is operating this teleprompter is in big trouble,” he said.